Peace on Earth

We come back to a few things each Christmas here at The Signal Watch.

Many years ago now, NathanC shared with us the incredible video of the Apollo 8 Astronauts reading from the book of Genesis from the moon on Christmas Eve, 1968.

Once again, we share this with you.



And, of course, images from the Alex Ross/ Paul Dini collaboration, Superman: Peace on Earth.

May you find warmth in this cold season however you seek it, be it among family, friends, in solitude or on the dark side of the moon in a tin capsule, looking back at our lonely orb, bright against the void.

Close another chapter.  Be grateful for everything the year gave you, and take a moment for what it took from you.

Having grown up Lutheran, I think of this as a night of anticipation, not just for the presents under the tree and the turkey that was showing up during tomorrow's celebration, but it has always been a night when we took a beat and a breath and in the tradition with which I was raised, the next day's delivery was about a better tomorrow for all of us, if we chose it.

Whether you're Lutheran, or Catholic or Zen Buddhist or Atheist, maybe we can choose a better tomorrow. I know what that future looks like to me, and it's what I hope for every Christmas Eve, and every New Year's Eve.

May your Spaceman Christmas be a merry one.  We wish you a peaceful Christmas Eve, wherever you are on The Good Earth.

And the only post-Bing Crosby Christmas song that should be in everyone's Holiday rotation, Ms. Darlene Love.

Merry Christmas, Jamie

Merry Christmas to my own Donna Reed.  Once again, I seem to have failed to lasso the moon for you.

I hope that's okay.

You make it a wonderful life, indeed.

Yes, we watched: Santa Paws 2 - The Puppening

A lot of discussion followed the viewing of this, the second installment in the Santa Paws franchise.  Santa Paws 2 is a spin-off of a spin-of of the 1990's harmless movie about a Golden Retriever who could shoot free throws called Air Bud.  Since 1997, I believe this is the 17th movie in the franchise/ shared universe of Air Bud.  No, I am not kidding.

really, I have no one but myself to blame.

I saw part of the first Air Bud movie on cable once, and its really very sweet.  If you're playing along at home, Bud was a real dog that COULD shoot free throws, so they made a movie using this dog, because...  holy @#$% - that dog could shoot free throws!  But as dogs do, he died.  They got other dogs and made more movies in which the dog played sports, and then, at some point, the franchise wasn't cute enough, so the script called for Bud to put some other Golden Retriever in a family way, and out came a herd of wise-cracking golden puppies and an entirely new and far more annoying franchise.

After a few of those movies, Disney (yes, Disney) insisted on a Christmas version, and our heroes joined with Santa's dog's son, I believe, Puppy Paws in Santa Buddies. This begat The Search for Santa Paws.  Which begat this installment.

Holiday (Check) Inn

Light blogging ahead.  I hope your holiday gatherings or un-gatherings are going well.

We'll be on the tweeters and facebook throughout.

Whether you're with family or flying solo, I wish you a restful, quiet time.  And cookies.  Lots of cookies.

Fire? Bad. Holiday Mirth? Good.

A Very Spidey Christmas

Paul sent this along.

I can only imagine how this would have gone for 5 year-old me. Mind would have been blown...

Wonder Woman, Christmas and a little B&E

Wonder Woman loves Christmas.  Enough to break into your house to make sure you have a lovely holiday.

Signal Watch Watches: Heathers (1988)

Yup.  The little movie about teenagers murdering each other and rolling in the media's late 80's obsession with teenage suicide like a pile of autumn leaves.

It is, of course, impossible to imagine anyone bankrolling this movie any time after about 2000 A.D., and it's entirely likely the receipt of this script to a studio in this day and age would mean FBI alerts and investigations.  Still, there was a time when a guy in a trenchcoat pulling a .357 out of his pocket and firing blanks in the faces of two burly jocks in the high school cafeteria was considered hilarious.

sometimes I still miss VHS as a format

I consider myself privileged to have experienced high school in an era before metal detectors, clear plastic backpacks, helicopter parents, "Teen Mom", 24/7 News Cycle angst. and a celebration of popularity on each and every teen-oriented show on TV.  I did not avoid blaming metal bands for the ills of society, and the phrase "juvenile delinquency" still carried some cachet before we decided, en masse, to pretend that all kids are special snowflakes.  And this movie is a product of the era around when I entered grades 9-12.

It's fair to say that the film hasn't aged well, even as it continues to look like the jokes told out back of high schools all across America where moody teens tried not to get caught smoking, the shadow of a decade of dead bodies in public schools looms over the movie and - in its way - doesn't exactly presage actual violence, but doesn't resort to blaming video games, gay marriage and name-a-pundit's-personal-poison, and rather looks at the ecosystem somehow we pretend to not know was there, when high school is, really, the last common denominator of a shared experience for the vast majority of Americans.  

It's also gratifying to see "nerds" and "geeks" in a movie from an era before the idea was co-opted.  

CarlaBeth brings you holiday hula-hooping, musical joy

my former college roommate, Ms. CarlaBeth, brings you holiday joy.

Behold!

Happy Birthday, Audrey Totter!

December 20th is the 95th Birthday of actress Audrey Totter!  I suppose that makes the timing of this post Audrey Totter-Day Eve.

Ms. Totter starred in a terrific run of films, and had one of her breakout appearances as a source of temptation for the always terrific John Garfield in The Postman Always Rings Twice.  Ms. Totter's character caused a bit of jealousy in Lana Turner.  People, if you can give Lana Turner a moment of pause, clearly you're a force to be reckoned with.

The first movie I saw in which Ms. Totter got top billing was The Set-Up, and it's an absolutely terrific bit of acting under the direction of Robert Wise, but I'd also point you toward Tension, which is a terrific example of noir (and also has Cyd Charisse and Richard Basehart!).  In this one, Totter blows everyone else on screen right out of the frame.   I'd also recommend The Unsuspected to see her alongside Claude Rains and playing a wide range in a single film.

That's sort of what I think of now when I consider Ms. Totter's films.  She wasn't a character actor, and in all of her movies, she manages to do what better actors pull off - and that's too completely fill the character in a unique way and disappear into the role, but still retain the ability to make you notice them.  Her roles in Man or Gun and Tension couldn't be more different, but she's terrific in both movies.

In the 50's, Ms. Totter began working in both film and television, she starred in series like Cimarron City and Medical Center, and retired from the screen with her final televised appearance in 1984 on Murder, She Wrote.

Today, Ms. Totter is still living in Southern California, and through a terrific series of internet blips by way of Jenifer, on Sunday morning I received a video in my email that made my year.   The video is of Audrey Totter sending Jenifer and me best wishes.  The video absolutely blew my mind.  It's like someone you watch at the movies turning to the screen and saying, "Oh, hello, Ryan."

Special thanks to Ms. Totter's granddaughter, voice artist, Eden Totter.  (Eden is super-great, by the way.)


Happy Birthday, Ms. Totter!  We wish you the best on your birthday and will be spending the holiday break catching up on some of your movies we haven't yet seen.



PS.  If you ever want to know what it would be like to be a detective in the presence of Audrey Totter, I highly recommend the experimental first-person movie, Lady in the Lake, based on the Raymond Chandler novel.